Quirky Web Sites

I enjoy well-planned and visually appealing websites. I prefer them to be easy to read, with a simple font and color scheme. (You'll notice I use Arial almost exclusively for it's ease of reading.) I also like quirky websites. When the two come together, a lot of time can get wasted.

One site I pop in on daily for a chuckle is Woot. http://www.woot.com/ They sell one item a day, usually some obscure electronics I'd have no idea how to use. When they are sold out, they're sold out. One item a day, price set in advance. Wait until midnight for a new offering. The only exception is on Tuesdays, where they offer two of an item. And on the last day of the month, they blow out items that didn't sell out by midnight, before a new item went up for sale. What's funny about this website is the description by the webmaster, as well as the bulletin board where people can post comments or questions about the item. You learn A LOT about an item from reading these. Give it a look-see. And if there is a screen on the item for sale, they usually have a pretty funny photo superimposed onto the screen.

Another site that makes me giggle or queasy, depending upon what recipe I'm reading, is Recipes of the Damned, now a blog. It can be found here: http://www.batemania.com/recipes/archive.html This gal makes it a point to post the most disgusting recipes ever known to mankind. She doesn't just make them up! No, she finds them from 1950's Jell-O advertisements and 1930's food labels. Brochures from meat marketing agencies and hand-outs from state fairs. Any source of horrid combinations is fair game. I suppose at the time these recipes were printed, they were considered good. I can't imagine it, but I must believe it. How else would you explain chopped up shrimp, apples, and vinegar in pineapple Jell-O that's been chilled, cubed, and served over lettuce? Or Spam and fruit cocktail mixed to form a party food?

On a more serious note, another site I check every few months is Family Watchdog. http://www.familywatchdog.us/ You can type in your address (or your neighbor's!) and see if any registered sex offenders are living near you and where. There is even a feature where you can see a photo of them and see of what crimes they are guilty. Now, realize that perverts not registered will not show up, nor will those that haven't been caught yet. So diligence is still best. But I still think this site has good information.